Paint
by Primrue
Summary: Hermione had never been one for breaking the rules, but she always believed in justice. Turns out, however, she's not the only one who wants Dolores Umbridge out of school. Muggle AU, one-shot!


The clickety clack of their heels and the sound of their adrenaline thumping hearts pulsating up to their eardrums were the only sounds that existed in the dark hallway. Well, almost the only sounds.

"Hermione has absolutely lost it, mate," muttered Ron behind her.

Hermione let out a sigh of frustration. "I can hear you, Ronald," she hissed, startling both him and Harry.

The three of them continued to venture further into the school, with all but a flashlight to guide them. Of course, they also happened to know the hallways very well as it was _their _school. But they had never been there during the night.

To be honest, never in her sixteen-year old life had Hermione done anything this mad. Perhaps Ron had a point. . .

"We are doing the right thing," Hermione repeated quietly to her friends, and admittedly, herself. "We are doing the right thing in getting that monster out of this school. She is ruining everything. We have to stop her."

"We know," said Harry, putting a hand on Ron's arm and effectively stopping Ron from saying whatever he'd planned on saying. "The only thing bothering me is that you two never offered to do anything like this when I said Snape was evil."

"Harry, you were eleven. You wanted to put dirt in his coffee because he was mean to you."

"Well, at least we wouldn't have ended up in jail. Hermione, we could get arrested for this!"

Hermione turned and met his worried face, the one she was so accustomed to after years of friendship. She then looked at Ron and saw the same worried look.

"I . . ." Hermione stopped. She should have told them 'I'm sorry' and that they could all go home and forget about this. But something in her made her stop. Why? Why should she be the one to be mature and reasonable? She had done plenty for her friends that was easily deemed crazy, so why couldn't they do the same for her?

After telling them as much, she flipped her big hair around and continued walking, all while hearing her friends' hissed protests.

After turning the corner, she regretted her decision immediately, as she heard voices.

". . .honestly, it's a bit excessive, don't you think?"

"Please, this is only the start of it, she's got a lot more coming."

"Blimey, Fred . . ."

Hermione let herself relax. It was only Ron's older brothers.

"What are you up to?" she asked, pointing her flashlight at them, confirming her suspicions. No one had that red a hair except for the Weasleys.

There was a loud chorus of 'clang's as something metallic fell to the floor and Fred and George Weasley yelled curses that echoed around them.

"G-granger?" asked Fred. "What are you doing here?"

"I asked you first," said Hermione.

"Well, I asked you second."

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Does if you think about it."

Hermione rubbed her forehead feeling a migraine coming on. "What are you doing here, Fred?"

George looked between them, not saying anything, but wearing a smug grin on his face. Whatever for, she didn't know. But the other twin was focused solely on her.

"Well," he said, walking towards her, "Why don't you have a look. Unless you're here to turn us in of course, because in that case I will have to ask you to leave."

"What . . .?" Hermione spun as Fred grabbed her shoulders and turned her to the door leading to an office. Umbridge's office.

"What do you think?" Fred's breath tickled her ear and Hermione fought a shudder. Her blushing she could do nothing about, after all these months she'd decided there was no fighting it. Luckily, it was dark and she was spared some embarrassment.

Her mouth popped open when she finally saw what the two of them had been doing. "T-this . . . that's . . ."

Across the door, the words 'Umbridge sucks' was spray painted in big neon letters. Next to it was a drawing of a toad. At least she thought it was.

"Couldn't quite get the hang of the face," said Fred, "It's much harder to draw an ugly frog than you might think, seeing as they're quite cute naturally."

Hermione let out a startled laugh. She had not been prepared for this. "It's incredible, Fred. Truly."

"I had some to do with it too," mumbled George to himself, holding his hands up. "But whatever, I suppose. Nevermind little George."

Hermione and Fred ignored him and were smiling at each other so broadly that she couldn't help but wonder, had they been alone, and a tad bit closer, maybe they might have . . .

"Hermione!"

Ron and Harry were approaching, both of them staring at the scene before them.

"What's going on?" asked Ron. "Why are you two here?"

"So lovely to see you too, little bro'," said George. "I see Hermione got you two to grow some balls finally."

"I _have _balls," muttered Ron, his ears growing visibly redder even in the dark.

"What were you planning on doing, then?" asked Fred, looking more at Hermione than the others.

"W-well," she said, pulling out a rolled up poster from her bag. "We made this."

"Hermione made it," said Harry, wanting nothing to do with that god awful poster, as he'd described it.

Hermione shot him a look and then showed Fred and George what it said.

"'Dolores Umbridge is a bad teacher'," George read aloud, slowly. "That's it?"

It was Hermione's turn to have her ears go red. "Well, it's true! It might not be as eloquent as telling her she sucks, but it sends a clear message."

"So does telling her she sucks."

Fred laughed and put a hand on her shoulder again, the warmth of it spreading to the rest of her body. "Don't listen to him," said Fred, "I think it's great. It's sort of like a bad review, it probably stings more. Because it seems thought out, you know?"

"I don't know if I'd call that poster thought out," said Ron. "None of this really was."

"Oh, shush, Ron," said Hermione. "You're just being . . .Did you hear that?"

The group listened and to their horror discovered they were not alone. Someone was patrolling the school.

"Run!"

George gathered the spray cans quickly and set off with Harry and Ron in one direction, Hermione and Fred sprinting towards another.

Her blood was pumping fast again and she had a hard time keeping up with Fred's long legs. She was falling behind.

Then, she felt his hand envelope hers in a firm grip and Hermione was right there beside him again. She dared a glance at him as they ran and she didn't need a flashlight to see how he smiled.

Hermione couldn't help but smile too.

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~o0o~

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**A/N: Hello lovelies! **

**This little fic was inspired by a prompt I got on tumblr and I liked it so I decided to post it here as well! Hope you enjoyed!**


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